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R-Rated movies for all

CNN.com has this article on R rated movies being checked out by young kids. Who is responisble, the parents or the library?\"David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, called it \"a little bit of a curious situation where the local video store may actually have more family friendly policies than the local library.\"

\"Walsh, a psychologist who formed the Minneapolis-based nonprofit group to \"minimize the harm of media exposure for children,\" suggested issuing library cards for 12- to 18-year-olds that would be coded to show whether their parents grant or withhold permission to rent certain items.\"

\"Then they would be consistent with what the library is trying to do and still be part of a community effort to keep inappropriate material out of children\'s\' hands,\" Walsh said.\"

\"In studying the issue, Shelkrot said that of the 21 libraries it surveyed serving populations of more than 1 million people, 15 allowed children who qualified for an adult library card to have access to their entire collections.\"

\"Many, including Chicago, San Antonio, Miami-Dade County, Florida, King County, Washington, and Phoenix, set no age limit, he said.\"

\"So we are really in the mainstream without any doubt,\" Shelkrot said, though he acknowledged \"we are trying to find a way to resolve these issues.\"

\"For some kids it\'s quite all right, for some kids it isn\'t all right,\" he said. \"We want parents to be involved and to be paying attention.\"

\"Access to R-rated films vary from library to library.\"

\"In Morgantown, West Virginia, which has a population of about 47,000, the Morgantown Public Library does not let children check out any videos until they are 16. Detroit Public Library has a minimum age of 18, said Theodora Czerigny, coordinator of children\'s services.\"

\"We truly feel that it is the parents\' responsibility to see what the children are getting,\" Czerigny said.\"